My Life Is An Open Book...

In previous weeks we've been doing exercises that help is to learn how to 'read' the Tarot. This lesson is going to look at another way we can interact with the Tarot, and that is through meditation.

Go through the cards in your Tarot deck, and choose a card that looks nice, peaceful, and calming to you. This card will be different for different people, but the ones that I like to use are The Sun, The Star, Temperance, The Ten of Cups, and the Hermit. You may choose another card, if it resonates with you more than one of these.

Using the probing techniques we have been using throughout this series, study your chosen card, and write down your observations in a notebook. Now think of a time in your life when you were really happy and relaxed. It might have been a time when you were with your family or friends, a time when you were alone on vacation and enjoying your own company, it doesn't really matter, as long as the experience was positive, uplifting, and relaxing.

In this week's exercise, we are going to continue to examine how we can use the Tarot to help us to find a path to our goals. We're going to start working with what Tarot card readers call a 'layout' or a 'spread'. This is a term used for describing the action of laying more than one card onto a table in order to read the story that the cards are telling.

There are very complicated spreads involving many cards, and there are simple spreads, such as the one discussed below. Every Tarot card reader has their favorite spread; there is no right or wrong spread to use. Think of the cards like frames in a cartoon strip, each one connected to the other to tell a story. This is the function of a Tarot card spread. It tells a story for the Tarot card reader to interpret.

Randomly choose three cards from your Tarot deck and place them in a straight line in front of you, left to right. Make three columns in your notebook, and record which cards you drew, again, going from left to right.

Now lets say that the card on the left represents something about yourself that you want to improve. If you could change an aspect of yourself, what would it be? Choose something that you can change, not something that is beyond your control. For example, you might want to be taller, but that isn't something about which you can do anything. However, you might want to be more slender, or more physically fit, and that is something that you can change; you can start a healthy eating program, or join a gym. You get the idea.

The middle card is going to represent a way of achieving this improvement. Again, looking back to losing weight, the middle card might be representational of not eating chocolate as often, or walking more.

The third card, on the right, is going to be a positive aspect of the first card. So if you chose the first card to be 'I want to lose weight' the third card would reflect why; you'll look better, you'll be healthier, you'll be more attractive, etc.

Example

Let's suppose that in your layout, the card on the left is the Magician, (shown top left on the web page), the card in the middle is the Page of Swords (shown bottom center on the web page), and the card on the right is the Two of Pentacles (shown center right on the web page).

Keeping our losing weight theme, we might interpret this as the Magician in the first position indicating that more control over things is needed. Look at the card on the web page; look how he stands, upright and confident, determined look on his face, raising his wand to the heavens for Divine assistance, while pointing to the Earth to ground and focus. So the Magician would embody your desire to lose weight by gaining control over things, and being determined.

The second card is represents the journey of how to bridge the first card to the third; in this instance it is the Two of Pentacles. If we look to the figure on the card, we see a balancing act performed by the character, using the two pentacles illustrated. The figure seems to be having to work at keeping the pentacles in harmony with each other; look at his stance, the expression on his face.

The third card reflects why we want to lose weight. In this case, the third card is the Page of Swords. He is confident, graceful looking, with a pleasant expression on his face. He is standing atop a small mound, sword aloft, ruler of all he observes. This card could be interpreted that in the losing of the weight, you would feel more content, more graceful, and more “on top of the world.”

So, to read the story that these cards might be telling us regarding wanting to lose weight, we could word it thus: “I want to lose weight. If I am going to lose weight I am going to have to get more control over things. I am going to have to balance what I eat with what I do, balance treats and sweets. This is worth doing because after I have lost weight I will feel more confident and happier about myself.”

Now apply this exercise to the three cards you chose from your deck. Using the probing techniques from previous lessons, observe the characters on your cards, and write them in the columns you made in your journal; the left hand card in the left hand column, the middle card in the middle column, and the right hand card in the right hand column.

Once you have carefully studied your chosen cards and written their description, write a brief paragraph as in the example above, as to how this applies to your own situation.